Mum’s bid for indoor skate park in Chesterfield

Michael Broomhead

A campaigning mum has launched a bid to bring an indoor skate park to Chesterfield.

Kerry Cunningham-Ravey is appealing for funding to make her dream a reality and provide a safe place for the town’s youngsters to skateboard.

Kerry, of Windsor Drive, Wingerworth, said: “Chesterfield is clearly growing and while that is very positive I feel there is room for a new indoor skate park which would give children a fun, safe place to hang out with adults supervising from a distance.”

Kerry told how she came up with the idea after taking her two children to an outdoor skate park last summer.

She said: “On arrival I was greeted with drinking, smoking, swearing and other unsavoury behaviour as there was no age restriction.

“This was coming from much older people and I had no option but to remove my children after only seven minutes.

“Cue light bulb moment and I become a woman on a mission.”

Kerry said she currently has two large ramps on her drive for her children to skate in safety – but it is not ideal.

She said: “This weekend alone I have had more than 20 children ride to our home to ask if they can use them as they simply have nowhere else to go and safely have fun.

“While this is fine in the short-term, they are massively restricted. We have self-imposed curfews and very little space and we have to consider the impact of noise on our neighbours.”

There are only three indoor skate parks for children and young adults within 20 miles of Chesterfield

Kerry said: “All of these involve parental involvement to travel there and back and none of them provide a purpose-built area for small children – certainly not an attractive one – nor dedicated trainers to help them along.”

Kerry has set up a petition calling for funding for the facility.

Sign it at www.bit.ly/1mIVTC3

Chesterfield has an outdoor skate park behind the Derbyshire Times’ offices at Spire Walk Business Park.